Late Latin *appanaticum, from appanare or adpanare 'to give bread' (panis), a pars pro toto for food and other necessities, hence for a "subsistence" income, notably in kind, as from assigned land.
These lands returned to the royal domain (the territory directly controlled by the king) on the extinction of the princely line, and could not be sold (neither hypothetically nor as a dowry).
The prerogative of Burgundy is also the origin of the Belgian, Luxembourgeois and Dutch states, through the action of its dukes favored by their position in the court of the kings of France.
Primogeniture avoids territorial splintering, which the earlier Frankish tradition of partible inheritance (equal division) suffered from (e.g. under the Merovingians and subsequent Carolingians).
Appanages thus were used to sweeten the bitter pill of primogeniture and deter revolt of younger sons by diverting their aspirations of claiming their eldest brother's throne.
So the Capetians broke away from the Frankish custom of partible inheritance, to instead have the eldest son alone become King and receive the royal domain (except for any appanages).
Most Capetians endeavored to add to the royal domain through incorporation of additional fiefs, large or small, and thus gradually obtained direct lordship over almost all of France.
In particular the line of Valois Dukes of Burgundy caused considerable trouble to the French crown, with which they were often at war, often in open alliance with the English.
The first article of the Edict of Moulins (1566) declared that the royal domain (defined in the second article as all the land controlled by the crown for more than ten years) could not be alienated, except in two cases: by interlocking, in the case of financial emergency, with a perpetual option to repurchase the land; and to form an appanage, which must return to the crown in its original state on the extinction of the male line.
Most famously, the Houses of York and Lancaster, whose feuding over the succession to the English throne after the end of the main line of the House of Plantagenet caused the Wars of the Roses, were both established when the Duchies of York and Lancaster were given as appanages for Edmund of Langley and John of Gaunt respectively, two of the four younger sons of King Edward III.
[citation needed] The defunct Kingdom of Strathclyde was granted as an appanage to the future David I of Scotland by his brother Edgar, King of Scots.
In the Indian subcontinent, the jagir (a type of fief) was often thus assigned to individual junior relatives of the ruling house of a princely state, but not as a customary right of birth, though in practice usually hereditarily held, and not only to them but also to commoners, normally as an essentially meritocratic grant of land and taxation rights (guaranteeing a "fitting" income, in itself bringing social sway, in the primary way in a mainly agricultural society), or even as part of a deal.
[6] As loyal allies, the Kublaids in East Asia and the Ilkhanids in Persia sent clerics, doctors, artisans, scholars, engineers and administrators to and received revenues from the appanages in each other's khanates.
[5] In 1298, his descendant Ghazan of Persia sent envoys with precious gifts to the Great Khan Temür, and asked for the share of lands and revenues held by his great-grandfather in the territories ruled by the Yuan dynasty (in modern-day China and Mongolia).
Ögedei decreed that nobles could appoint darughachi and judges in the appanages instead of direct distribution without the permission of the Great Khan, due to Khitan minister Yelü Chucai.
[9][full citation needed] Kublai's successor Temür abolished imperial son-in-law King Chungnyeol of Goryeo's 358 departments which caused financial pressures to Korean people, though the Mongols gave them some autonomy.
[10][full citation needed] The appanage system was severely affected beginning with the civil strife in the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1304.
)[12][13] After a peace treaty declared among Mongol khans Temür, Duwa, Chapar, Tokhta and Oljeitu in 1304, the system began to see a recovery.
[14] Tugh Temür was also given some Russian captives by Chagatai prince Changshi as well as Kublai's future khatun Chabi had servant Ahmad Fanakati from Fergana Valley before her marriage.
By 1339, Ozbeg and his successors had received annually 24 thousand ding in paper currency from their Chinese appanages in Shanxi, Cheli and Hunan.
[17] H. H. Howorth noted that Ozbeg's envoy required his master's shares from the Yuan court, the headquarters of the Mongol world, for the establishment of new post stations in 1336.